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Friday, December 10, 2010

DIY Feather Tree

When I say feather tree, I don't mean those scrawny sparse mini-Christmas trees like this one:

I'm not hating. I actually love these.

I mean a tree of feathers. I originally saw one in the Rue spread of The Girls with Glasses and fell in love. Since then, I have come across a few others on various blogs. I NEED one of these in my life! So of course I'm going to DIY-it. :)

Martha has a DIY posted here, but I feel like my way is easier. YES, I just said I came up with something better than Martha.

Start with a Styrofoam cone {hobby lobby, walmart, michaels, amazon}. You can decide what size you want but I used a 15" tall one.

You will also need a feather boa. {hobby lobby, michaels, amazon, your local costume shop} I choose white because that's what I have lusted after but a black one would be stunning, too. Choose whatever color boa you want. If you choose a different color, I suggest covering your Styrofoam in that color felt or fabric. That way you insure no white will peak through the feathers.

A cake stand of your choice; just make sure you choose one just slightly larger than your cone. Check out my DIY in this post to create your own.

Lastly you need a hot glue gun. {Not showing a photo of that because I'm pretty sure we all know what they look like.}

Now this next part is difficult so be prepared. Actually it's not, I'm just pulling your leg.All you do is start at the bottom of the tree and hot glue the end of the boa down. Wrap the boa around the cone gluing and positioning the feathers as you go. Once you get to the top, make sure you cover the flat tip. Don't worry too much if a bit of the Styrofoam shows through, although it most likely won't if the boa you use is fairly large, because your topper show cover it. Snip off the rest of the boa to save for another tree or other crafts.

For the topper, I used a star ornament of appropriate scale. I attached it to a pick that had silver glittery Christmas berries and stuck the pick into the Styrofoam. You can now decorate it with baubles or leave it as it is. A strand of silver beads would look lovely wrapped around it.